Cascade Crew

chevymad · Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 12:47 pm Post subject: Some 2nd gen lovin going on.

Decided to hit the pick n pull for their sale last monday. Went and stole the rear brakes off a bravada. That got me most of the parts, but I still needed the passenger side bracket and backing plate off a 2wd with discs. Kinda hard to find so I ordered up a new set.

Here's what i've done so far.

Removing the axle.

Unbolted the drum backing plates.

All stripped down.

Ebay spacer plates.

Direct bolt on.

Reinstalled axle.

Nearly complete.

Missing 1 abutement clip and the bolts to hold the calipers on. So sort of at a stop on this part. Will need to make a brake bracket for the hose and then shorten the steel brake line and re-flare to hook the hydraulics up. The original ebrake cable housings plug right into the brackets, but I'll have to steal matching cables out of something with discs and slide them into my housings. Also still need to change the master and proportioning valve, but may do that later today.

I'm told this setup also works on 3d gen rears. I'm just not sure which backers are needed. I needed one 4wd and one 2wd because 2nd gens have offset shocks.

These should match up pretty well with the 1LE brakes I installed in the front.

aaron_sK · Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 4:41 pm Post subject:

That's cool, man. I'm a big fan of any upgrade that can be made up using of off-the-shelf parts.

Are you going fourth-gen for the master and prop valve?

chevymad · Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 4:44 pm Post subject:

Apparently the 4 wheel disc 2nd gen TA master and prop work great with my combo. So going to give that a try.

QwkTrip · Posted: Sun May 31, 2015 6:38 pm Post subject:

That's pretty cool!

chevymad · Posted: Mon Jun 01, 2015 7:29 pm Post subject:

A little more tonight. Kinda on hold though. The abutement clips have to come from Spokane. I didn't have the correct one in my parts bin. Kinda lucky I didn't though cause I'm missing another spring clip I didn't know about as well. So those should be here wed/thurs.

Tonight I made a couple simple hose brackets and welded them to my axle tubes. Missing the horseshoe clips for these too. I probably have dozens of them somewhere in the barn but not going to spend the time looking. That is unless new ones also have to come from timbuktu.

Then I slapped on a wheel to check clearance. Everything fits under a stock 15" rally II.

chevymad · Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2015 7:18 pm Post subject:

All the clips showed up today. So I got the calipers mounted and the brake lines clipped into the new brackets. Went and cut the steel lines and double flared. Everything bolted together just peachy. I'm always amazed how well the $15 summit double flare tool works.

So tires are back on and i'm just waiting to replace the master/proportioning valve before try outs.

chevymad · Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2015 3:27 pm Post subject:

Moved it today, having other issues so havent given it a test drive yet. First started moving was very disappointed in the pedal travel. But proportioning valve or something reset by the time I got it turned around and back in the barn. Pedal firm and at the top!

The other issue is my shifter. The ratchet was giving me vague responses and sometimes not going into the appropriate gear. So I bought a new shifter cable. But with the new cable I can no longer get into park. Sad

Since I don't have ebrake cables yet, and now no park either I haven't taken the car anywhere. I just tried my original non ratcheting shifter and while its very tight it still won't park. There are no adjustments. So now I read that aftermarket cable's aren't stiff enough to force the trans into park. Sad

Guess I get to change that yet again. Hopefully the ratchet shifter will work with a new cable. With the original shifter I can't even feel where 2nd gear is at all. So no manual shifting.

Also did a little bit of interior work. I've had an exposed package tray complete with 2 extra can openered speaker openings shining through the rear window since the beginning. Finally got a new vinyl tray for it. Removed the 6x9 grilles and mounted them under the metal tray, then put the vinyl over the top of the whole works. Man that helps the looks alot!

chevymad · Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2015 4:03 pm Post subject:

Debating replacing the whole shifter assembly since my top indicator plate is also cracked. Looks like I have 2 choices for one that fits in the stock console. The quicksilver and the megashifter. I allready know what a megashifter is like and am not too excited about that one. Anybody use the quicksilver? Does it ratchet reliably?

chevymad · Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2015 7:48 pm Post subject:

Bought a quicksilver. Shifter looks nice, very short stick. But still fighting the cable adjustment. Shifter is supposed to use the stock cable and tranny brackets, but with the adjustment maxed one direction, it doesn't quite reach park. And with it there it doesn't reach 1st at all. Tried both the new cable and the original cable. In fact broke the new cable screwing with it.

So now i've ordered the B&M bracket/lever kit. Hopefully that will get this thing working. Not sure wtf has gone on with this thing.

aaron_sK · Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 8:34 am Post subject:

Seems to be a common thing. I have had linkage adjustment issues on multiple vehicles.

If I don't need to hold it in first I will sometimes just adjust for best park position and go with it.

Twilightoptics · Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 10:28 am Post subject:

Sounds like the lever on the Trans needs to be longer.

chevymad · Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 4:28 pm Post subject:

I agree Paul. That's why I've ordered B&M's lever. Not much you can do to the 2nd gen lever. It's a weird shape because it's made to also have the steering column back drive. I no longer use the backdrive due to the headers. Which is another reason to use an aftermarket shifter. I can get a set of neutral/backup switches for this shifter.

Aaron I kinda need it to hold first. Otherwise I need to do some governor work on the trans. It shifts out of first so fast when left in drive you almost swear its a powerglide.

aaron_sK · Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 4:50 pm Post subject:

Yeah, on that car you want to be able to hold a gear. Laughing

It seems to me that not being able to reach both first and park would indicate the lever needs to be shorter, (more rotation at the pivot point for the same distance traveled at the circumference) but I could be wrong.

chevymad · Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 5:37 pm Post subject:

Hey, now.. don't get all technical or anything. Next thing you know you'll want to measure and calculate.

Twilightoptics · Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 10:29 pm Post subject:

Aaron's right. My brain was thinking shifter but said trans. Shorter at trans or longer at shifter.

chevymad · Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2015 6:26 pm Post subject:

Well Amazon screwed me and the parts didn't arrive. Ordered Wednesday night, figured well Prime shipping might not make it for the weekend. 1 day shipping is only $3.99 so I'll do that. Ya.. it'll be here Monday. Even though Amazon still says its on time and will arrive by 8pm yesterday lol.

BUT I managed to get the shifter working. Very Happy

The instructions on the shifter had me bolt a cable adapter bracket to the bottom of the shifter. Even shows a pic of it with the bracket to the outside of the shifter. However, it needs to bolted to the inside of the shifter. Somehow doing this put my linkage adjustment dead smack in the middle and I get both park and L1.

Even funnier.. just looking at the online pdf of the instructions. Thought i'd post the picture I was going by. Hmmm, evidently B&M had this problem before cause these instructions are different. Even has a pic with the parts labeled showing the correct order. That pic isn't on my printed instructions.

So tomorrow i'll finish fixing up its nose and perhaps get the rear brake cables installed. But here's a pic of the quicksilver, never mind my dirty floorboards.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10205888948476229&l=69632056f8

chevymad · Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2015 12:04 pm Post subject:

FYI fiberglass reproductions made from molds of soft plastic parts really suck.

chevymad · Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2015 7:14 pm Post subject:

Got the new front valance on.. Fit was terrible. Car was 2" wider then the valance. No holes were predrilled, and the whole thing had a twist in it. Spent a long while drilling holes, then tightening things down while hitting it with a heat gun. Had to use a come along on the bottom of the fenders to pull them in to match the valance. But while it isn't as good as I'd like, its much better then it was.

Then I made up some new Ebrake cables. I cut the cable part out of a new set of cables and slid them into my original housings. These cables have the correct square eye for the parking brake drum lever. Then I routed the cable through the original eyes and clamped them together with cable clamps. After that I discovered that the ratchet mechanism on the foot pedal was frozen. Got that free'd up and everything seems to work. Just have to finish putting it all back together and I finally get to try out my new steering box and rear discs.

chevymad · Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2015 7:40 pm Post subject:

Maiden voyage tonight. Something in the brakes did a little self clearancing.. Made some noise at first LOL

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chevymad · Posted: Sun Jun 21, 2015 4:34 pm Post subject:

So now I have a neutral safety switch and backup light switch.. Still need to see if the bulbs are burned out or something. Switch is working and has power anyway.

Also when I installed the redhead steering box it wasn't centered with the wheels.. I had a 1 1/2 turns one direction and 1 turn the other. Plus the wheel was off. Well back when I installed the grant wheel I had to mount it wrong to get close to straight with the old box. Turns out the old box was so shot that the wheel was that far off and the alignment guy had tried to compensate.

Now I've got everything centered again, the wheel is on correctly and my turn signal even cancels at the proper time! Smile

And the sweetest thing, there is absolutely no slop in the steering. Just smooth and in control.

Oh and the brake noise I heard, the Ebrake cable was rubbing the inside of my fat tires. Zip tied that back to the leaf spring and all gone.